“The first thing we are looking for is prevention, so that a working person does not find themselves in that situation” of violation of their labor human rights in another country, says Vanessa Calva Ruiz, General Director of Consular Protection and Strategic Planning of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE).
In the United States, Mexicans are the largest group of immigrants, representing 24% of more than 45.3 million foreignersaccording to the Pew Research Center.
However, they also have the “lowest levels of educational attainment and the lowest family income” compared to other immigrant and native populations, according to the Migration Policy Institute (MPI, for its acronym in English).
“They also tend to have lived in the United States longer than all immigrants and are more likely to be in the labor force than adults born in the United States”, points out an article by Raquel Rosenbloom and Jeanne Batalova, from MPI.
Estimates from said institute indicate that the Mexican population is also “the largest group of unauthorized immigrants: 48% of the total of 11 million people in 2019”.
The 51 Mexican consulates in the United States, “soon there will be 53, constantly disseminate recommendations and preventive messages so that people know that regardless of their immigration status they have rights at work,” says Vanessa Calva in an interview.
Supervision for child labor
At the end of February, the Department of Labor (DOL) reported that illegal child labor in the United States increased 69% since 2018.
Weeks before, he had revealed one of the most unfortunate cases: more than 100 children and adolescents of Central America they worked in a company using dangerous chemicals; cleaning back saws, brisket saws and beef head cutters and additionally working night shifts.
The area that Vanessa Calva directs immediately contacted the DOL, says the official. As they have informed him, up to now they have not identified any child or adolescent of Mexican origin who is being a victim of labor exploitation.
“This is not exactly good news, because in the end there is a labor exploitation of boys and girls, regardless of their nationality,” he points out. “But we do not want to lower our guard and we are reinforcing what was already being done.”
The Consular Protection System has six spheres of action: immigration, criminal, civil, family law, human and labor rights, explains the official. “Under these headings and concepts is that we organize our actions and measures and distribute and exercise our budget.”
The labor rights they are one of the most important areas for the Foreign Ministry, says Vanessa Calva, former executive director of the Institute for Mexicans Abroad (IME). “The main responsibility of a consulate is to make sure that a Mexican person is not in a situation of vulnerability or risk and if their rights are at risk or are violated, to identify the most appropriate way to help them directly, be it with an action, a consular management or channeling your case to an authority”.
Protection of labor rights
At the beginning of March, the SRE organized the Meeting of Consuls for the Protection of Mexico in North America. One of the agreements reached regarding the protection of the labor rights of compatriots in the United States was to “increase the visits to agricultural fields to offer consular services and identify cases”.
Each Consulate knows which are the industries “that usually hire Mexican people,” explains Vanessa Calva. “Some will have been hired under the program of temporary work visas” H-1B, for non-agricultural activities, and H-2B for agriculture.
In the event that they detect a case of possible violation of their labor rightssays the former consul in Leamington, Canada, “we provide support through the External Legal Advice Program (PALE), which allows us to have lawyers and offices in the United States.”
The visits are carried out according to their faculties and thanks to diplomatic work, “because we cannot properly carry out the investigations.”
Others of the agreements they reached the consuls were:
- Identify the competent state and federal labor agencies in your constituency
- Strengthen alliances with community organizations, labor lawyers and migrant workers
- Disseminate information about the requirements to apply for DACA employment benefits and take advantage of this measure in the context of the absence of comprehensive immigration reform
- Promote and strengthen the Labor Rights Week
This last action is organized every month of September since 14 years. “We are going for our 15th edition and last year we also held the first Legal Advice Week”.
In addition, “we have signed agreements with local and federal authorities in the United States on labor matters and we are on the same page for issues of back pay, discrimination, and potential situations of human trafficking,” the official reports.
